Year-End Benchmarking
Two weeks from now, you’ll be picking up the pieces, trying to figure out what went right … or wrong.
Assessing how well your last-ditch December fundraising went. Of course the most attention will go to dollars raised: a) against budget targets set for the year (and month), and b) year-over-year (hopefully growth).
As you read this today, is that what you’re expecting? Good news?
If so, why?
Was it something you and your organization did differently and/or better? And can explain cogently to your boss to support that much-deserved budget increase (or raise) you want for the coming year.
Or were you just riding some wave — e.g., heightened angst over the political direction of your particular country or economic good news?
Either way, soon you’ll be called upon to explain the year-end results to the impatient powers-that-be who run your nonprofit. How will you tell your fundraising story for the year? What are the measures you’re planning to use?
Hopefully the ones that really count, like donor retention rates and lifetime value. It’s nice to be able to talk about ‘more dollars’ in the door. But it’s even better to be able to report how you improved the underlying fundraising condition of your organization.
Or you can try this …
Tom
P.S. Most nonprofits will have gone ‘pedal to the metal’ with their email over the month of December. You might want to benchmark your use of the channel against other sectors — banks, consumer products, travel, etc. Here’s one of the very few email benchmark studies (from IBM) that actually compares nonprofits with other sectors on process measures like open rates, click throughs and engagement/read rates. And nonprofits do well by comparison.
Behavioral Science Q & A
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